On Monday evening, a strange phenomenon could be observed over Stuttgart—the sky was completely purple. People quickly began to suspect that it might be the northern lights. But that wasn’t the answer to the mystery; VfB Stuttgart had the answer.
Around Christmas time, things usually quiet down in soccer, but on Monday evening, a purple sky over Stuttgart caused quite a stir. The lights caused amazement – and news of the Northern Lights over the Bad Cannstatt district quickly spread.
Experts doubted this, with Carolin Liefke, deputy director of the House of Astronomy in Heidelberg, telling Südwestrundfunk (SWR) that there had only been “slightly increased solar activity,” which would have led to the lights being visible in northern Europe at most, but not “at our latitudes.” They definitely would not have been visible in Baden-Württemberg. In any case, colored auroras are extremely rare this far south, as only the strongest auroras glow in color. The solution to the mystery was therefore not to be found in the sky, but on Earth, or to be precise, at VfB Stuttgart.
Lawn lighting as the solution to the mystery
It was the lawn lighting at the MHP Arena. The Bundesliga club used a special light to promote lawn growth, a Stuttgart spokesperson told Tagesschau, revealing that VfB would switch on the system “every evening.”
Since 2024, special LED lamps have been used to replace sunlight, which is intended to keep the turf playable even in the fall and winter months, when it gets dark early and there is little sunlight.
Most of the time, this would not be particularly noticeable, but there are also external circumstances that lead to images such as those seen on Monday evening. In thick fog, the magenta light shines upwards, creating “festive lighting,” as the club spokesman said: “In this case, it was probably our Christmas present to Stuttgart.”
VfB Stuttgart is currently on its winter break and will not play at home again until Tuesday, January 13, when it faces Eintracht Frankfurt (6:30 p.m.). Three days earlier (6:30 p.m.), however, the team will kick off the new year with an away game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
